Tuesday, January 28, 2014

As you
travel from Tirunelveli towards Kanyakumari, you pass through many villages….
Muppandal is one…. but is far different … there is the legend of Tamil poetess
Avvaiyar associated with this place ~ that she called the Three Emperors (Moo
Vendargal) – Chera, Chozha and Pandiyas ~ the Kings who had come for attending
the marriage erected mantaps (pandals) in the village and hence they are now
called Muppandal (meaning the 3 mantaps).

The once impoverished village on hilly track is now famous as it harnesses
wind energy in a big way. In the area
there are thousands of windmills of various hues and sizes – 250 KW; 750KW;
950KW and 1650KW to name a few.

Miles away lived the
Vikings, seafaring north Germanic people who raided, traded, explored, and settled
in wide areas of Europe, Asia, and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th
to the mid-11th centuries. The Vikings employed wooden longships with wide,
shallow-draft hulls, allowing navigation in rough seas or in shallow river
waters. Østerild is a small town in Thy
with 653 inhabitants ~ wiki mentions that there is one grocery store, tavern,
school, and a few other small businesses. It is in Denmark, officially
the Kingdom of Denmark bordered by Sweden, Norway and Germany. Denmark is associated with
wind energy.

Wind energy is the kinetic
energy that is present in moving air. The amount of potential energy depends
mainly on wind speed, but is also affected slightly by the density of the air,
which is determined by the air temperature, barometric pressure, and altitude. The
Danish Government decided in February 2011 to build a new prototype wind
turbine test center near Østerild in Jutland. Test Centre Østerild was
established during 2012 and allows for erection of wind turbines of up to 210
and 250 meters.

Vestas is a renowned global energy company dedicated exclusively to
wind energy - improving business case certainty and reducing the cost of energy
for our customers. Vestas is more than a century old and have developed great
expertise in the wind energy technology.

Vestas and Denmark are in
news now as : Vestas’ first V164-8.0 MW prototype wind turbine has successfully
produced its first kWh of electricity, making it the worlds’ most powerful
turbine in operation. “We have now
completed the production, testing, and installation of the V164-8.0 MW as
planned, thanks to the team’s intense effort during a time when Vestas has
reduced its investments and lowered fixed costs. We now look forward to
evaluating the turbine’s performance on site,” says Vestas’ Chief Technology
Officer Anders Vedel.

The turbine, installed at
the Danish National Test Centre for Large Wind Turbines in Østerild, will be
closely monitored in the coming months to further validate reliability and
energy output. The turbine’s installation is a key milestone towards ensuring
maximum business case certainty for customers investing in offshore wind. The
V164-8.0 MW will be the flagship product for the offshore joint venture between
Vestas and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

The V164-8.0
MW turbine is the world’s most powerful, with one unit capable of supplying
electricity for 7,500 average European households. With a 140-metre tower, the
turbine at Østerild has a tip height of 220 meters. The swept area of more than
21,000 m2, equal to three football pitches, increases the amount of energy
captured, while reducing operational and maintenance costs by enabling
customers to run fewer, larger turbines, with fewer service visits. It is
claimed that given the necessary pipeline of orders, serial production of the
V164-8.0 MW turbine are likely to begin in 2015.